Reception conditions for asylum seekers 37. Greece has further reduced its reception capacity and eliminated alternatives to camp accommodation since the last decision of the Committee on the M.S.S. / Rahimi group of cases, contrary to the assurances provided by the Greek government to the Committee.70 The government has completely phased out decentralised accommodation in rented apartments under the ESTIA programme and in hotels under the FILOXENIA programme, and has shut down camps such as Kara Tepe on Lesvos and Skaramangas and Elaionas in Attica.71 38. We note that the Updated Action Plan submitted by the government in June 2023 fails to communicate the capacity of the country’s reception system. Such information is not included in the statistical reports released by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. 39. In any event, in its exchanges with the European Commission, the Ministry has “flagged the difference between the sites’ nominal vs actual capacity and underlined the lack of items such as mattresses, beds, and general issues of facility management before the actual capacity reaches the nominal capacity”. The Ministry has committed to “analyse the situation concerning the actual capacity of the mainland camps”. 72 40. These developments should also be read in the broader context of the Dublin Regulation and in conjunction with the manner in which Greece treats incoming requests from fellow Member States and Schengen Associated States. 41. According to Eurostat statistics, Greece rejected all incoming Dublin requests it received in the course of 2022. In 2021, it only accepted 20 and rejected 6,582 requests.73 Due to this, the European Commission has “expressed concerns at the very low level of accepted requests under the Dublin Regulation and that rejections of incoming Dublin requests are based on a standard reply from RIS which states that the reception system cannot host the person.”74 Closure of ESTIA & elimination of alternatives to camps 42. The Greek government completely closed down the ESTIA programme of decentralised accommodation of asylum seekers in rented apartments at the end of 2022, in a move officially presented “yet another commitment to reduce the impact of the migration crisis on local communities”. 75 The observations made by the Greek government in para 12 of the Updated Action Plan are therefore factually incorrect. 43. The Greek government has given assurances to the European Commission on plans “to keep some 500 places (under a new call) for vulnerable persons”.76 These are reported to be established under a new EU-funded project called “Stiriksi”, according to 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 DH-DD(2021)363, para 10. DH-DD(2021)521, para 32. European Commission, Operational Conclusions 11th Steering Committee Meeting for Migration Management, Ares(2022)7197303, October 2022, 3. Eurostat, migr_dubdi; migr_dubdedaci. European Commission, Task Force Migration Management Mission Report – Greece – Jan/Feb 2022, Ares(2022)1024324, 11 February 2022, 3. Ministry of Migration and Asylum, ‘Ολοκληρώθηκε το πρόγραμμα φιλοξενίας αιτούντων άσυλο σε αστικά διαμερίσματα «ΕΣΤΙΑ»���, 4 January 2023, available at: https://shorturl.at/byA46. European Commission, Task Force Migration Management Mission Report – Athens/Lesvos, Ares(2022)8851878, December 2022, 3. 14 RSA COMMENTS│ 2023